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Traidcraft Recipes

Coconut Rice Pudding from Venezuela. Serves 2 -4

Venezuela's cooking blends indigenous foods with Spanish introductions - so avocados and maize/corn breads mix with bananas, coconuts and rice. Dishes using coconut in some form, like this recipe, are typical of the coastal region.

  • 1/2 pound / 225g rice
  • 1/2cup / 35g desiccated coconut
  • 1 cup / 240 ml milk
  • 1/2 cup / 100g sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Grated rind of 1/2 lemon
  1. Put the rice into a pan and cover with boiling water. Cook for ten minutes or until the rice is almost ready; drain.
  2. Now return the rice to the pan and add the dried coconut, the milk, half the cinnamon, and the sugar. Mix well.
  3. Cook over a gentle heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the rice is completely ready. Sprinkle on the lemon rind and cinnamon before serving.

The traidcraft stall has white rice and a number of different varieties of sugar to choose from.

Hope it works out, sounds yummy.

All the best Fran.

Mushroom & aubergine stew (serves 2 to 4) from GHANA

In the south of Ghana, maize flour is fermented and then made into balls known as kenkey, which are steamed and wrapped in maize leaves. These are a popular street food, served with just a dash of ground tomatoes, onions and peppers or fish. Ghana was the first West African country to have a brewery and today it has many of its own beers, including Guldre, Star, ABC and Club.

  • 1 aubergine, diced
  • 1/2pound / 225 g mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 1/4 teaspoon chilli, deseeded and finely chopped, or 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1/2 cup / 120 ml stock from the vegetables (see step 1) or water
  • oil
  • salt
  1. First, boil the aubergine pieces in boiling water for 5 – 10 minutes until soft. Drain, keeping the liquid, and then mash coarsely.
  2. While that is happening, sauté the onion in the oil for 5 – 8 minutes, and then put in the mushrooms, tomatoes, chilli and salt. Fry gently until the tomatoes and mushrooms have softened.
  3. Now stir in the mashed aubergine and stock, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir from time to time to produce a thick stew consistency.

You can, of course, use the fairly traded Palestinian olive oil found on my stall.

Enjoy. Fran

Watercress salad that serves 2 from Laos

This recipe is from the Luang Prabang in Laos where they grow a unique species of watercress. It's a great and very unusual summer salad, which has been adapted here to remove the fish sauce it would normally include and to use the watercress normally available in western stores. In Laos it would normally be eaten with sticky rice – but then so is everything! The dish is best prepared just before serving, so that the dressing does not make the watercress and the herbs go limp. Omit the eggs to make it a vegan dish.

  • 1/2pound / 225g watercress
  • 2 tomatoes, quartered
  • 5 inches / 12.5 cm cucumber, sliced
  • 2 hard-boiled eggs
  • 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro / coriander, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon peanuts, toasted under grill and chopped
  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  1. First, put the eggs on to boil and cook for 8 – 10 minutes until they are hard. Then cool them, peel and chop into quarters.
  2. In the meantime mix the watercress in a bowl with the tomatoes, cucumber and herbs.
  3. Now dissolve the sugar in the white wine vinegar; add sesame oil and soy sauce and mix well.
  4. Place the hard-boiled eggs around the top of the salad. Pile the nuts into the centre and then pour over the dressing.

There you have it, Watercress salad. The sugar required for this recipe could be bought from my Traidcraft stall.

Bon appetite. Fran

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